Bitcoin Turns Bullish; Mining Energy in the Spotlight

A week after its ten-year anniversary, Bitcoin’s price broke away from $6,300 on the back of increased trading interest and grew by over $100 at the start of this week. When compared to last week, there now seems to be more interest in buying the cryptocurrency while the current market signals suggest this trend may continue over the next few sdays.

In other interesting news, Hublot – the Swiss luxury watch maker – has recently released a new product aimed at Bitcoin millionaires or anyone with enough coins to buy the new luxury item, Mashable reports. Called the Hublot Big Bang Meca-10 P2P, Hublot’s new exclusive piece is a 45-mm watch made from polished and micro-blasted ceramics that has a 10ATM water resistance.

However, what makes this watch unique is that it was released to mark the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin and that it will be exclusively sold for BTC. With a gear engraved with the Bitcoin logo, a blockchain-inspired strap, and a bezel’s edge engraved with the transaction ID used to buy the watch, the Big Bang Meca-10 P2P is the perfect homage to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. Hublot is yet to announce the price but what was revealed so far is that there will only be 210 watches made – a nod to Bitcoin’s limited supply of 210 million coins.

Buyers Come Marching

Thanks to an increase in trading volume and buying interest, Bitcoin’s price began rallying at the start of this week to push the cryptocurrency over its former levels and set out for new heights. The lowest point during the past seven days was reached on early Thursday morning, when Bitcoin touched a price point of $6,311.83, while its highest price came short after midnight today when Bitcoin reached a 7-day peak of $6,545.97.

Throughout this period, the cryptocurrency’s 24-hour trading volume mostly remained over a healthy $4 billion, even surpassing $5 billion during its peak. Since morning, the volume has been rising again, suggesting there’s room for further price increases. It is currently over $5 billion while the market cap is at $113.3 billion.

Our technical analysis shows that the market is quite bullish, with 10 out of 12 technical indicators and 11 out of 12 moving averages sending buying signals. The SMA 100 is also over the SMA 200, showing there is less resistance to the upward course, while both shorter- and longer-term signals likewise point to a bullish market. If the sentiment doesn’t change, we will be looking at further price increases.

Bitcoin Mining Consumes More Energy Than Traditional Mining

What made the most headlines last week was that Bitcoin mining was found to be more energy-consuming than traditional mining. As reported by Entrepreneur, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education conducted a study spanning over two and half years (01.2016-06.2018), during which it was found that the mining of Bitcoin consumed a staggering 17 million joules of energy for every $1 worth of the cryptocurrency.

This number makes Bitcoin mining three times more energy-consuming than the mining of gold, which consumes 5 million joules for every $1 mined, 4 times more than copper (4 million joules) and nearly twice more than platinum (9 million joules). While those figures don’t paint an exact picture, considering Bitcoin’s price fluctuations over that period, it is nevertheless concerning to see how big of an impact cryptocurrencies have on the planet. Moreover, during the same period, the researchers found that four cryptocurrencies were responsible for 3-15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), with China-based miners being one of the biggest culprits.